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TEACHER GUIDE Chronology: Leo Frank Case Timeline 1913 1914 1915 April 26 – Murder of Mary Phagan February 17 – The decision in the April 19 – The U.S. Supreme Court April 27 – Mary Phagan’s body is trial is affirmed by the Georgia rules against Leo Frank. His discovered by Newt Lee, night Supreme Court execution is rescheduled watchman of the National February 24 – Jim Conley is found for April 25. Another appeal Pencil Company guilty of being an accessory to by Leo Frank’s attorneys April 28 – A reward is offered for the murder of Mary Phagan. is turned down by the U.S. information leading to the He is sentenced to a year on Supreme Court. arrest of the murderer of a chain gang. Leo Frank’s June 9 – A request for clemency for Mary Phagan. Newspapers in execution is set for April 17 by Leo Frank is rejected by the Atlanta compete to print each Judge Ben Hill. Georgia Prison Commission. new development in the case. April 16 – Leo Frank’s attorneys again June 21 – Governor John Slaton April 29 – Leo Frank is taken into move for a new trial. The commutes Leo Frank’s death police custody and identified execution, set for the next day, sentence to life imprisonment. as a suspect in Mary Phagan’s is postponed. The response to the murder. April 17 – Judge Hill denies the motion commutation is swift and April 30 – The official investigation for a new trial. violent. There are riots in the begins. April 25 – Leo Frank is examined and streets of Atlanta and mobs May 1 – Jim Conley is taken into police determined to be sane. converge on the governor’s custody and questioned. In his November 18 – The request by Leo residence. testimony, Conley accuses Leo Frank’s attorneys for a review July 18 – Leo Frank’s throat is Frank of the murder. of the case is rejected by the slashed by a fellow prisoner May 6 – A grand jury is formed to Georgia Supreme Court. in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is review evidence in the case. December 7 – The U.S. Supreme not certain that Leo Frank will May 8 – The investigation by the Court refuses to review the survive the attack on his life. coroner is completed. Leo Frank Case. August 17 – During the night, May 24 – Leo Frank is indicted for the December 28 – Joseph Lamar, U.S. vigilantes converge on murder of Mary Phagan. Supreme Court Justice, accepts Milledgeville State Prison July 28 – Leo Frank’s trial begins. the petition for habeas corpus, Farm. Leo Frank is taken from August 25 – Leo Frank is found guilty a document issued to bring a his bed and driven almost of the murder of Mary Phagan. party before a court or judge, 200 miles to Marietta. He is August 28 – Judge Leonard Roan to release the party from illegal lynched. sentences Leo Frank to be imprisonment. executed by hanging. October 22 – Leo Frank’s lawyers attempt to get him a new trial. October 31 – The motion for a new trial is denied by Judge Roan. Atlanta Constitution, August 26, 1913. On hearing the verdict Frank stated, “I am as innocent as I was one year ago.” ii The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited American History Chronology 1911 1914 1915 March 25 – Jewish and Italian April 20 – Company guards and February 8 – D.W. Griffith’s film, Birth immigrant women are killed National Guard troops attack of a Nation, depicts the Ku Klux in a fire at New York’s Triangle striking coal miners at John Klan in a positive light. Shirtwaist Company. D. Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel May 7 – The British ship, the Lusitania, October – The National Urban League & Iron Company. When the is torpedoed by the Germans is organized to help African- strike ends,74 people have died, and sinks in the Atlantic; 1,198 Americans secure equal including eleven children. passengers drown, including 114 employment. June 28 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Americans. Lynchings: Sixty black Americans are heir to the Austro-Hungarian August 17 – Leo Frank, a Jew, is known to have been lynched. throne, is assassinated by a lynched in Atlanta, for allegedly Serbian nationalist. The events murdering an employee at the that follow result in World War I. National Pencil Company. August 15 – The Panama Canal November 14 – Booker T. Washington, 1912 officially opens. well known African American September 26 – The Federal Trade spokesman, dies. January – 25,000 textile workers go on Commission is established to Persecution of Armenians by Turks strike against the American prevent monopolies and unfair begins; this is the prelude to the Woolen Co. of Lawrence, Mass. business practices. Armenian Genocide. April 14-15 – The Titanic sinks. About September – World War I combatants Germans use poison gas as a weapon in 1,500 of 2,200 passengers and participate in the Battle of the World War I. crew members drown. Marne Lynchings: Fifty-six black Americans October 14 – Theodore Roosevelt is Lynchings: Fifty-one black Americans are known to have been lynched. shot during a campaign tour. are known to have been lynched. Roosevelt delivers a speech before going to the hospital. Lynchings: Sixty-one black Americans are known to have been lynched. 1913 February 25 – The 16th Amendment permits the government to levy an income tax. March 10 – Harriet Tubman, former slave, abolitionist and freedom fighter dies. April 11 – The Wilson administration begins government -wide segregation of work places, restrooms and lunchrooms. Summer – Henry Ford introduces the assembly line, producing a thousand Model T’s daily. Ford also establishes a $5 work day. December 23 – The Federal Reserve System is established, providing central control over the nation’s currency and credit. The fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation is celebrated throughout the year. Lynchings: Fifty-one black Americans are known to have been lynched. Souvenir postcard of the lynching, 1915.Postcards such as these were easily available into the 1940s. The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited iii Acknowledgments For permission to reprint copyrighted material, grateful acknowledgment is made to the following sources: Original text from the exhibition, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited by Sandra Berman & Jane Leavey The Ballad of Leo Frank, adapted from Us and Them, published by Teaching Tolerance The Press and the Leo Frank Case by Steve Oney Stereotypes in the Media from Hate Hurts: How Children Learn Prejudice, ADL Jacob Lawrence, Plates from Migration of the Negro Series Phillips Collection Museum of Modern Art Jena Six Timeline from About.com All other images in this publication are courtesy of the Ida Pearle and Joseph Cuba Archives of The Breman unless otherwise noted. Teacher Guide written, compiled and edited by: Sally N. Levine Specialist for Teacher and Curriculum Development The Breman With special thanks to the following members of the Breman staff for their support, guidance, contributions and direction: Jane Leavey Executive Director Sandra Berman Archivist Lili Baxter Director, The Lillian & AJ Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education Ruth Einstein Webmaster Graphic design by: Carolyn Dean www.ricedeangraphics.com iv The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Table of Contents Chronology: Leo Frank Case Timeline ..............................................................ii American History Chronology .....................................................................iii Introduction: The Prologue . .iiv PART I – SEtting thE StagE Developing a Working Vocabulary . 3 Definitions .....................................................................................4 Reconstruction in Georgia – Readings and Discussion . .6 The Cotton States Fairs and International Exposition – Readings and Student Activities ......................8 Henry Grady “The Spokesman of the New South” . .9 Henry Grady to the Bay State Club of Boston, 1889 . 9 Questions and Activities . .9 The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 Overview . .10 Fundamental Causes of the Riot..................................................................10 The Immediate Cause of the Riot.................................................................10 The Riot . 10 The Aftermath . 11 Activities and Questions ........................................................................12 PART II – IntRodUcing thE LEO FRanK CasE Profiles of the Protagonists and Discussion Questions Mary Phagan..................................................................................15 Leo M. Frank..................................................................................15 Luther Z. Rosser ...............................................................................16 Jim Conley ....................................................................................16 Hugh Dorsey ..................................................................................16 Tom Watson...................................................................................17 Judge Leonard Roan............................................................................17 Governor John Slaton...........................................................................18 Alonzo Mann..................................................................................18 Newt Lee . .19 William J. Burns ...............................................................................19 William Smith .................................................................................19 PART III – THE EVEnts